Tang Contemporary Art is excited to announce a new female group exhibition at our Hong Kong gallery space, titled “A Room of One’s Own” and opening on June 22. The show will display more than twenty magnificent works by five young female artists, including Ding Hongdan, Li Muhua, Liu Youran, Wang Su, and Zhou Xinyu.
“A woman’s way to independence begins with a room of her own.”
– Adeline Virginia Woolf
As described by Hou Hanru in his publication Everyday Miracles, the modernization in China was rational, linear, rapid, vertical, progressive, efficient, and utopian – attributes which were once considered male-oriented because of the rigid, patriarchal hierarchies, subsequently coercing women into fixated gender stereotypes. Nevertheless, these characters mentioned by Hou are now demonstrated in women through the development of feminism, allowing them to rest and breathe amidst gender struggles, and to “reconstruct a room of one’s own”.
Since the 19th century when the awareness of women’s political participation started to grow in Britain thanks to the efforts by Emmeline Pankhurst, feminism has been able to manifest itself publicly. Ways to achieve individualism, diminish differentiation, and reconstruct a comfortable everyday space then become ensuing topics to be tackled. Economic independence, possession of a personal space, and the right to knowledge also became essential conditions for women to acquire a “social distance in modern terms” (Georg Simmel), as well as to enjoy fruitfulness in their spiritual life. In fact, women should also have the privilege to lead the others and handle situations. Female artists, likewise, transcend beyond the development of an “-ism” and focus instead on individuality and enriching their own “Memory Bank”. What is shared are life experiences, initiating sentimental revolutions and redefining heterogeneity – implementations outside of political means.
Nowadays, the “rhizome” in feminism is still under exploration, with diverse entries, exits, tunnels, veins, self-designed games, and escape routes. Crevices of naturalized feminism nourish cultural rooms and emotional caves, and not simply intellectual fortresses. According to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the diverse and decentralized structures of natural caves can help more people find spiritual independence and models of self-governance, thereafter inspiring the stories of Mille Plateaux. The five young female artists in this group exhibition offer new connections and their own perspectives as women.
The explorations in Zhou Xinyu’s “blue paintings” are profound. The melancholy of the blue is always close at hand, following us in our difficult moments with an existentialist sensibility. Inspired by distorted video or fragments of light and shadow, she focuses on fleeting things and women’s sense of their own fragility. The estrangement evoked by the figures in Zhou’s paintings mingles with stagnant emotions and cool gazes. The visual centers of the works are always symbolic gestures, which articulate the woman’s inner monologue and become totemic. We can sense the visual oppressiveness of a pair of folded hands or a tightened jaw. Zhou said, “By constantly deepening that sense of stillness, all of the brushwork in the image seems to be tied there.”
Fiona Lu
June 11, 2022
2022.06.22 - 2022.07.30
